Sasha Sumner
art projects
Census fraud! Ok… this means more work for the street walkers, door knockers, buzzer pushers, observers of the neighborhood.
Two Census Bureau managers fired for creating at least 10,000 bogus questionnaires to meet deadlines
BY Samuel Goldsmith and Jake Pearson In New York and Michael Mcauliff In Washington
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Saturday, June 26th 2010, 4:00 AM
Census Bureau managers Alvin Aviles and Sonya Merritt are accused of researching phone books and Internet to fake answers on surveys to meet deadline.
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Do you think more Census workers have purposely faked questionnaires?
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Two Census Bureau managers from a Brooklyn field office were fired after their bosses found they faked household surveys to meet deadlines, the Daily News learned.
Instead of pounding the pavement and knocking on doors, the corner-cutting people-counters mined the phone book and Internet to make up answers to questionnaires, regional director Tony Farthing said.
The managers – turned in by whistleblower employees – were caught last week. Now, at least 10,000 surveys need to be done or redone, officials said.
Census officials in Washington only admitted to a string of incomplete forms and poor tracking in disclosing the firings Friday afternoon. But Farthing corroborated worker accounts to the Daily News that managers Alvin Aviles and Sonya Merritt began dummying up responses in the final crush to finish the surveys, which field workers are supposed to compile from in-person household visits.
“Basically, people were being asked to forge [questionnaires],” said one worker in the North East Brooklyn office, which covers 95,000 households.
“We went in and did a full investigation,” Farthing said. “We found out two managers on the weekend of the 12th of June cheated by using phone books or Internet sources.”
A worker told the Daily News that when field interviewers returned to the office with blank forms, Aviles also enlisted some of them in the scheme. “He had people fill them in,” the worker said.
Aviles and Merritt could not immediately be reached for comment.
Farthing said he believes the branch’s earlier work is kosher, but the pair decided to break the rules at crunch time when they were looking at a huge stack of unfinished surveys, and their bosses were pushing for results, even if it meant more night work.
“We were telling them to go back on all non-interviews and hit this stuff hard. None of this 9-to-5 stuff, go when they know someone will be home,” Farthing said. It was then, Farthing said, that the managers “came up with the bright idea, or not-so-bright idea” – to save time.
The Census bureau was not able to estimate how much it will cost to redo all the work, but a spokesman said it was not an issue because the bureau was under budget on the massive project. Farthing said the honest workers left in the office are redoing 5,000 or so interviews that may be tainted.
“We’re not happy about what happened,” he said, noting that Aviles and Merritt were turned in by the very people they trained.
Census Worker, Addiction Counselor
I ran into a random census worker in Manhattan, she had the bag with the logo. I said, they’re closing out Brooklyn, as far as I’ve been told.
Not so in Manhattan! But, I thought Bk was the worst- nationally! Shouldn’t we be finishing last? I kind of wanted Brooklyn to be the worst, somehow, a sardonic claim to fame.
Was thinking yesterday, being a census worker is like being a social worker, or a quitting smoking adviser, or a diet coach, or an addiction counselor. The neighbor, the client, the smoker, the victim, the addict, needs to be convinced that they are giving up info, resigning to give up afflictions, for the sake of their own good. If they do it for themselves, for their own districts’ good, then they are on easy street. But the ones with suspicion, lack of trust, paranoia, even uncalled for anger, are more difficult to convince. There’s a mental game going on, on each door step. Understandably, lack of trust is natural in our criminal world of identity theft, just as it is when living in an unhealthy or dysfunctional environment. Yet, in the job of the enumerator, you have to trust, to trust that the info is confidential and that it will be treated right, otherwise how could you do the job convincingly? Fortunately there is ‘hope’ for more than 50% of clients, or maybe those are the ones just more easily brainwashed!
-a busy bee worker, signing off.
Last Day of Census Count
Today is supposedly the last call to get counted. For every person that’s NOT counted, the district LOSES $3000!
Around 10pm last night as I was on my way home, a girl stopped me on the street, Are you really doing the Census?
Ok, brace for assault,
but,
her demeanor was very relaxed
and she had a cute dog,
at ease partners…
Turned out she worked in Biology/Geology and said that they use Census data all the time and she was so appreciative of having this information. Phew!
Let’s hope that the rest of today goes smoothly so I can finish this job with a sense of accomplishment.
Mr. Blow It Out
So, a day or two ago, Mr. Blow It Out Your Arse actually called me and apologized! This after he called the office to learn that I was doing my job, too good of a job he said and he finally gave me the little info that I’d tried to get in the first place.
I saw one of my official Notice Of Visit notes today, still taped to a door from yesterday and there was a long missive on it about why you should give this info- this written by a neighbor who claimed to be “drunken”. I had to take it down because it looked as if I had written it and if you didn’t read it carefully you’d have thought I was the one who was “drunken”. A guy happened to be coming in to the building and he said, “Oh I thought you wrote that!”
I heard the word from Swedish FOS today that tomorrow was my last day, and everyone’s last day. They actually haven’t finished enumerating Brooklyn, but I think they either just gave up or ran out of money or both. Since Brooklyn is one of the worst Census takers nationally, I repeat, nationally!, why finish the job? it’ll just mean giving Bk more money. My Crew Leader, I call her ‘Ayla’ left me a message saying the same thing about tomorrow being the last day so it must be true- one more day of door bell ringing, mostly useless buttons with frayed wiring. The pressing the pressing, the Itouch for Luddites, touched a million times by delivery people, UPS folks, pizza boxers- that’s every few weeks, snow shovelers- that’s every winter, and census takers- that’s every decade. So old fashioned. At least it feels like you’re doing something, standing in a random doorway, expectantly pushing something.
Some kids said that they thought I was going door to door asking for money. They said they assumed that, why else would anyone be going door to door?
One gal laughed at me as she saw me again while returning from the corner store. Oh how embarrassing, still looking for the inhabitant of 3R? Ha ha, good luck on that!
Oh by the way, I’m running out of generic clothes to wear. If it’s a t-shirt, it has to not say anything provocative, nothing offensive, better yet, not say anything at all, otherwise strangers will use it as fodder for conversation outside the federal boundary.
I really feel like I’m beginning to know some people now, as some are repeat offenders, or just repeats that have begun to have character traits or have sisters now or housemates or dogs, all recognizable. It the real thing, oh dear, it’s the REAL facebook!
I feel confident that in ten years they will do this all online, I’m already feeling nostalgic for the streets! Maybe beat cops will just be replaced by drone robots with billy clubs and guns? The multiple camera system is already in place.
The weather finally broke and it was cooler today.
Cantankerous old men and biotches… more on census taking
On being an Enumerator, one who takes the count, house by house, apt by apt.
Yesterday was the bloody hell day for cranky old folks. A perfect example of how uninformed minds justify violent outbursts… they just make up assumptions about something, spit it out, in your face, shout at you, accuse you of harassment, get off my property! I’m calling the police!
The guy was actually harassing Me, I’m standing there calmly not doing anything, nothing threatening, not yelling, and he’s screaming that I’m harassing Him! Holy Moly! I leave immediately, enough of this BS!
Ok next!
A couple of doors down, been trying to contact the people on the third floor, but they never respond to my nice explanatory notes. “You don’t have to give any personal info.” This finally on the third day of notices taped to premises. The lady on the second floor, skinny smoker, sees me every time as she goes in or out, her sour looks would be almost too perfect for a movie, she comments- It’s none of your business! I already sent mine in, I can’t give any information about anyone else, this with attitude and scowl. A typical line from the uninformed. Since she lives there, legally she can give info. But she totally ignores anything I say. Like would the world change if she just said how many people live upstairs?
She has federally funded senior center written all over her forehead. Too bad she can’t make it out in the mirror.
So that was Thursday, first time I thought about quitting, right then and there.
Got a bunch more reject cases today, Friday. These are the census forms that other enumerators did not finish, or who just gave up after trying to contact after six attempts, understandable.
Yet, I can see how easy it would be to take advantage of the system because nobody is watching you do this, nobody but the neighborhood folk, the unemployed.
So I was in a different neighborhood. Made out ok, but, when I finally got home I saw the first pay stub in the mail, not so much, the job can actually be really hard, like yesterday, and the pay just is way too low for that kind of crap!
Oh brother, these days we’re just happy to have a job.
jobalujah!
What it’s like to work for the US Census Bureau
This is fiction but mostly based on reality!
First, like last winter, you took a test, did great on that, ok so finally in June is training. Ok but getting to the training part took weeks of- oh no you can’t miss one day of training because of a prior obligation so you can call back about the evening training time slot since it isn’t scheduled yet, but then when you call back, it’s already been a full class so you can’t have the training now, sorry no job for you. But if you call back several weeks later actually they fired a lot of people from the first 2000+ hiring and now another training is taking place. Ok just say yes over the phone and get a spot in the training session. But why is one training session 40 hours a week and the other is 20 hours a week? Will the 40 hr wk people get to learn another job, more difficult perhaps with better pay? Afterall it’s double the training time. All the phone people insisted that no there was no difference, it was just scheduled that way for people who had day jobs or other. Finally a manager told me that it’s the same material but it is just stretched over 40 hours and you get paid for training so you get twice as much for that. Ok great sign me up for the 40 hours!
Ok back to training.
This is the most disorganized thing I’ve seen, everybody sitting around for hours while peoples names keep getting called off of different lists and people get moved to different rooms or not, glad I brought a book! Anyway, everyone’s getting paid for this! The class started with the teacher reading the lessons, but there are so many interruptions since people that work there keep coming in and reading more names off lists, and people keep talking so the noise level goes up and down and up and down. There are no blackboards or anything so that just makes it even harder to concentrate on the material, which is very “dry” as the our Texan accented former army drill sergeant teacher keeps mentioning. Big voice: Listen up people! I know how to do this right so let’s get to it! Actually, he said that he was Puerto Rican from Brooklyn born and raised, but that he got the accent when he was in the army or other briefly and besides, all his friends are either country, or Southern, so he always talk like that. Indeed.
The teachers are all quite entertaining in their own way. The first guy was the Shake Shack guy, I guess he ate a whole lot of burgers, appreciated his humor and attitude about all the confusion. Then there was the slicked back slightly tousled silver-haired guy, seemed to take his job more seriously, supposedly he was on the cover of a magazine, something like GQ, back in the 70’s, you can still see that he cares about his fashion as he wears gucci something or other, and drives a shiny black sports car. Somebody joked that it was probably a porn magazine. All this time, sitting around, allowed us folks to gossip about the goings on. I was sitting next to a guy, a philosophy teacher, and I had told him that I was also a teacher and we agreed that if we had to evaluate this class we’d give it an F.
But on the second day as we were getting fingerprinted, and waiting in line in the hallway, you could hear, in one of the rooms, there was a huge argument going on between the assistant girl who was helping Shake Shack guy on the first day and one of the trainee girls. Apparently the assistant had had her cell phone stolen and accused the other gal of taking it, and the other one was claiming that she was being searched and that was against the law, you can’t just look for your stuff on other people, who do you think you are! Huge shouting match. Finally one of the uppers shouted them down ok that’s enough! and fired the new trainee on the spot for her behavior. Meanwhile everyone was surmising why take a cell phone it will just be reported stolen and then what are you gonna do. Guess you could try to try to sell it? I was saying it’s not about the cell phone, that’s not what’s driving a clepto, it’s the act of stealing, that elevates you, though briefly, puts you one up over somebody else.
The big group, our classroom, was the slowest, compared to the other rooms, to get the fingerprints and of course my table had to go last. They needed two sets for some reason, Shake Shack guy did my first set really quickly and sloppily, (but who’s gonna care anyway?), we could have been singing that line in a musical, then Texan accent army guy did my second set, more carefully and slowly, he said he was a pro, I was the last one, he was ready to get outta there. Actually earlier I had noticed that he was wearing eyeliner and he could tell I was looking at it and he seemed a bit embarrassed briefly that I looked there instead of at his eyes when speaking to him. After that I always imagined that he had been performing at some club the night before and had left the eyeliner on by mistake and that’s why he was always so late in the morning, or otherwise he was just a kind of vain person who put it on in the morning for teaching like I do so the eyes will look a bit more awake.
On the way out, with our new shoulder bags with pencils and pens that were missing a lot of materials for some, we saw the fired-accused-of-theft-girl talking to some cops on the sidewalk in front of the cop car.
Turned out that I knew two people in my class from separate former lives, Tina and Jessica. Good to have friends in there!
Next day Wednesday, I got there early and was sitting there just before 9am and hardly anyone there, and no teacher in sight. Tina came over and had the brilliant idea to go check out another room, smaller, downstairs. It was just too big up there and we were moving more than twice as slow as the other classes. The new teacher graciously let us in even though we were behind and had to catch up. No problem, at least now we were doing something in class, l e a r n i n g! We did role playing about door knocking and went over the different situations and how to handle them.
The teacher was a CL in the process of making FOS (pronounced foz). Crew Leader being promoted to Field Officer S___. So he had to go to meetings at lunch break and kept having updated info about the situation out there. Whole crews of enumerators were being fired as were Crew Leaders, so they needed people fast, and by the end of Thursday he was offering people in the class to be Crew Leader right off the bat. Friday of training was canceled for all trainees, that’s it, go out there and finish you’re assignment cases.
Oh, see, I was just going to write here about what a sucky day it was at work today, out there in the trenches, but I got distracted by all the background details.
People have no idea how hard this job can be sometimes.
Anyway, working really blows! No time to get anything done! One of Those days I guess… more on the good the bad and the characters of the neighb next time.
Public/Personal issue – Toxic Fumes!
Have you ever had petroleum fumes inside your home?
I went through a time-period last winter that was ‘Fume Hell’…. like being inside a gas tank in your kitchen.
Below is documentation of the process I went through to find out more information- still inconclusive!
Take a deep breath.
Signing off for today,
Sasha
FUMES TIMELINE – BRIEF OVERVIEW
FEB 3 – 8, 2010
Fumes, terrible petroleum odor in house emanating from basement sewer well or underground. Fumes dissipated over time, most intense on first few days.
Sat FEB 6, 2010
called 311 again
reference C1-1-541-391-793
called 311
filed complaint – DEP
reference C1-1-541-358-249
MON FEB 8, 2010
DEC (Hazan Ahmed) and DEP (guy did not leave contact info, handwritten name looked like Mohammed Ojo) could definitely smell the Fumes. Checked out basement. Could not find oil residue on sump pump, suggested airing out.
FRI, FEB 12, 2010
DEP tested outside sewer line on block, appeared normal. See report in longer timeline.
FEB 26 – 28, 2010 – FUMES, begin second episode, not quite as heavy as first time.
I called 311, they said that DEP would come over.
The ref number is
184 992 782
FRI FEB 26 cont. – DEP HAZMAT inspection
Sherif Gerges and Deanna Brown, both from NYCDEP – Hazmat, found petroleum Fumes but could not determine source, said must call Bureau of Water and Sewer Operations. BWSO is impossible for a resident to contact. See below.
MAR 22. 2010
No conclusions on petroleum source yet.
=====
Background info, I’m a neighborhood resident for 3.5 years.
I’m guessing that this is probably not related to fumes but you may find it interesting:
btw, there is a large construction site directly behind my place, but the foundation pounding work stopped (temporarily?) last summer/fall ’09 when the neighborhood was rezoned. Not sure of the current status on that construction. Have noticed that some kind of small activity is going on there as of this month, but not the earth-pounding foundation-shaking movement of last year. This may or may not be related to the construction, but at that time 1/2 of the electricity on my first floor faltered and then went out completely. I filed a report about my electricity going out at that time. Then, months later, on Friday morning 12/18/09 two people who claimed to be from Con Edison to install a new meter were let in by my unsuspecting housemate when I was not home. They asked questions about electricity being out and examined the basement. My housemate said that they didn’t look the part but did have clipboards but no badges. They had repeatedly rang the doorbell. After I was told about this, I called Con Edison to inquire and they said that there were no work orders for my address, nobody had been to my house that day, and they checked all the Con Ed departments to make sure, finding no evidence. I still have the same meters and they are still working the same as before. Con Ed said that they were likely imposters and recommended that I file a Security Incident Report with them, which I did. Wow is this fun!
FUMES TIMELINE – MORE DETAILS
Wed Feb 3, 2010
Starting early in morning, toxic fumes come from the basement. Terrible odor, can’t breath it, residents and myself can’t stay in the house.
Called the furnace fuel oil company and they sent someone over- they checked for any oil leaks but did not find any and said that the smell was coming from something else, not the furnace.
Note, that night, this may or may not be related, myself and another in the house were sick, nausea and vomiting.
Thurs. Feb 4, 2010
Turned off the furnace all day to see if the fumes would diminish, but nothing happened so we turned it back on that night.
Fri Feb 6, 2010
called 311
They connected me with the fire dept who came over and checked out the basement, they could certainly smell the fumes, but determined it was not a fire issue and left.
Sat Feb 6, 2010
called 311 again
reference C1-1-541-391-793
numbers that were given to me and that I called:
poison control center 212-764-7667
they told me to call
EPA 202-272-0167
they told me to call
EPA 212-637-3000
told me to call
EPA national emergency 732-548-8730
told me to call
EPA emergency national 800-424-8802
told me to call
EPA NY 518-402-8545
and
DEC 800-457-7362
311 had also told me to call Dept of mental health and hygiene
where Dr. Bruck told me to call 311 again and file a complaint with the DEP.
called 311
filed complaint on DEP
reference C1-1-541-358-249
MON FEB 8, 2010
Called and spoke to Dawn Hettrick, DOH
Note, as Dawn Hettrick (DOH) pointed out, my home is outside of the designated testing area for hazardous waste.
also left message with David Harrington, NYS DEC, but ended up speaking with another fellow he works with.
DEC (Hazan Ahmed) and DEP (guy did not leave contact info, handwritten name looked like Mohammed Ojo) checked out basement and could not find oil residue on sump pump, suggested airing out, as they could definitely smell the fumes.
TUESDAY FEB 11, 2010
I went to the CB1 meeting and made a public comment about the fumes in my house.
After meeting spoke briefly with Evelyn Cruz (community coordinator, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez), Rami Metal (community liason council member Levin’s office), Carolyn Sanders-James, Dir. Brooklyn Affairs Unit for Office of Mayor), Channel 12 News.
WED FEB 10, 2010
Hazan Ahmed, DEC, called and left message, I called back several times but he has yet to call back.
Also Rami Metal called. He said he would try to see if there’ s any help for me, we will communicate tomorrow.
Ongoing step by step correspondence with
Rami Metal, Community Liaison (Office of Council Member Stephen Levin).
THURS FEB 11, 2010
I called the spill hotline and spoke to dispatcher Leuber who gave me a reference number 09 11 958. He said that the DEC would be calling me to come look at the place. I told him that DEC had already been to the house and he said they’d still call.
Then the first DEC guy, Hasan Ahmed called and told me that only DEP can help with the sewers if they are clogged in the street.
FRI FEB 12
I left messages today and yesterday with Steve Stangerslan 718-482-6153 of the Region 2 Spill Office, no return call yet. That number was given to me by the original spill hotline dispatcher Leubner who said that DEC would be calling me, nothing yet.
FRI, FEB 12, 2010 also
DEC tested outside sewer line on block.
TUES. FEB 16
Rami:
THUR. FEB 18
I spoke with Yolanda Brooks, DOH, Environmental Investigation. She agreed that since I am concerned and my home is just blocks from the designated testing area that DEC be asked to test the house.
If there is nothing found then we can rest assured, if there is something found then something could be done about it.
THURS, Feb 18, 2010
Rami: Apparently DEC came to the block to inspect on Friday.
I was home all day on that Friday 2/12/10, DEC did not call or ring doorbell. Fumes were not present in house on this day.
Msg FROM RAMI
—–Original Message—–
From: Muller, Richard [mailto:RichardMu@dep.nyc.gov]
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 9:34 AM
To: Metal, Rami
Cc: Hubbard, Denise
Subject: FW: DERTA responding in Brooklyn
Rami – Denise Hubbard will be giving you a call on this and to introduce
herself as the go-to person on constituent issues.
Thanks,
Rick
—–Original Message—–
From: Hubbard, Denise
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 9:28 AM
To: Muller, Richard
Subject: FW: DERTA responding in Brooklyn
Rick,
Location: ______ Street
Responders: M. Johnson, T. Fraczak
Situation: Caller states there is a toxic odor coming from the sewer
near the address.
Observations: DERTA responded to scene. Responders surveyed all drainage
entrances, manhole covers, and grates along the entire block that the
address is on. DERTA’s survey instruments did not find any hazardous
substances in the ambient air and all other areas mentioned earlier.
There is no apparent odor in the air other than cooked food from a
nearby cafe.
My note: SITUATION SHOULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN CORRECTLY AS:
Caller states there is toxic odor coming from sewer well in basement of house which is connected to the street.
MON FEB 22, 2010
Gerry Kelpin, Director Air/Noise Policies/Enforcement, contacts me, uses the email address of someone named Alyssa Preston.
On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 6:32 PM, Preston, Alyssa <AlyssaP@dep.nyc.gov> wrote:
Dear Ms. Sumner:
I am writing in response to your email to the Mayor’s Office concerning the emission of fumes into the open air form a location near your home. Please provide the location of where this problem emanates from and the Department of Environmental Protection can conduct an inspection. I do not know why the call was transferred to the FDNY unless you said there was smoke and it was interpreted as a fire. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Gerry Kelpin
Director, Air/Noise Policies/Enforcement
FEB 23, 2010
rom
Preston, Alyssa <AlyssaP@dep.nyc.gov>
to
date
Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 10:33 AM
subject
RE: #1-1-541358249 Fumes
mailed-by
dep.nyc.gov
hide details Feb 23
If it is a sewer odor, then we should forward to the Bureau of Water and Sewer Operations.
Feb 22 – Mar 11 CONTINUED MESSAGES to/from Gerry Kelpin up to March 11, 2010. Repeated pattern of me asking for help and Gerry saying BWSO would contact me. Nothing yet.
FRI FEB 26, 2010 – FUMES, begin second episode, not quite as heavy as last time.
I called 311, they said that DEP would come over.
The ref number is
184 992 782
====
FRI FEB 26 cont. – DEC HAZMAT inspection
from
to
cc
Deanna Brown <deannab@dep.nyc.gov>
date
subject
Follow up on oil/petroleum fumes experienced today Friday 2/26/10.
Sherif Gerges and Deanna Brown, both from NYCDEP – Hazmat, came to my house to investigate the fumes today around 3pm.
They could definitely smell the odor when they entered the home. We went down to the basement where more intense fumes were emanating from. Sherif was holding a meter. They both agreed that some kind of oil/petroleum was detected.
They recommended that I contact the Bureau of Water and Sewer Operations, call 311 to request an inspection. As follow-up they also said that they would put in a request to the BWSO themselves immediately. I have just tried calling, but since it’s after 5pm now, BWSO is closed until Monday, so can’t put the request in yet, I hope they did earlier today.
They concluded that the source could be either from the sewer line connected to the house in the well in the basement or from some kind of ‘oil spill’ at the house. The ‘oil spill’ could have been connected to the pipes to the oil furnace or from something underground or behind walls.
Note, on the latter option, in the event that the oil originated from a spill of some kind in the house- If that was the case, the only oil in the house is from the furnace. I’ve resided at the house for 3 years and there has been no handling of oil/petroleum in the house other than delivery to the furnace. There have been no oil deliveries since December 2009. At the first fumes episode, (2/3/10), I called the oil company that delivers and services the furnace and they immediately came over to inspect and concluded that there were no leaks and the fumes were coming from somewhere else, not furnace related.
In the event that something had been spilled in the house prior to 3 years, why would that smell be coming up just now? Why then would the neighbors have also complained of the same fumes during the first more intense ‘fumes’ episode on Feb 3, 2010? If it was some kind of spill, then it would have been much larger than just something from inside my house as to have affected the neighbors across the street as well as the neighbors up the block. They have told me that they experienced fumes at that very same time.
Due to these facts, it seems more likely that the fumes come from the sewer connected to the street, and if not that, then from some larger underground spill.
I hope there are some conclusions to this investigation. I can still smell it in the kitchen now and the food is not liking it, not to mention my human body. Unfortunately it’s not over yet.
S. Sumner
FRI FEB 26, 2010 cont.
FROM GERRY KELPIN
from
Preston, Alyssa <AlyssaP@dep.nyc.gov>
to
date
Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 12:38 PM
subject
RE: #1-1-541358249 Fumes
mailed-by
dep.nyc.gov
hide details Feb 26
You should call 311 and register a complaint, the 311 operator will give you a complaint number. I have forwarded your message to the person who routes these complaints and asked that the appropriate person in BWSO contact you.
Nothing yet from BWSO.
SAT FEB 27
FUMES
SUN FEB 28
FUMES
TUES MAR 2 & 3
Two days of ‘light fumes’ around this time period, mostly affecting basement.
TUES MAR 2, 2010
from
to sasha
cc
“Gerges, Sherif” <sgerges@dep.nyc.gov>
date
subject
mailed-by
dep.nyc.gov
We have forward your situation to Bureau of Water and Sewer Operations. They will be investigating and following thur with your compliant.
Deanna Brown
Hazmat Specialist
96-05 Horace Harding Expy
Corona, NYC 11368
Phone# 718-595-7244
Fax# 718-595-4690
Mobile# 646-265-6130
Mon Mar 10, 2010
As per DEP request/suggestion, I tried to contact the Bureau of Water and Sewer Operations, but was unable to. 311 only passes me to a billing office in another borough or to some department that is not what I’m looking for. We’ve had two light days of fumes since the last episode when DEP came. (DEP came Feb 26, 2010 and fumes continued to Feb 27, 28) I have no way to contact BWSO, there is no public phone number.
Mar 11. 2010
Phone message today from DEP, Dan Bulerd (Sp?), who said he was responding to a request that I get a call. He said that the sewers were checked on 2/27/10 and that everything was fine. He was referring to the time that DEP came to the block but did not attempt contact and did not come inside the house. He also said that there was a survey going on in the neighborhood and didn’t know that date on that and that the community board is looking into it. (Did not say what the survey name was.) He also said that Hazmat was there, but didn’t have anything to say about it.
Very frustrating getting this message because he did not leave any contact info and he said everything was fine. He does not recognize the full story, and did not sound very concerned at all that everyone in the house had to breath toxic fumes on two separate episodes. He blew off the positive Hazmat findings just saying “Hazmat was there”. This sure sounds irresponsible and unprofessional.
Thurs Mar 18, 2010
Went to Greenpoint Petroleum Remediation Project meeting.
Met:
Dawn Hetrick, DOH
Karl Berger, DEC, Citizen Participation Specialist, Bureau of Public Outreach
Phillip Musegaas, Esq, Riverkeeper, Hudson River Program Director
Michael Schade, PVC Campaign Coordinator, Center for Health Env & Justice
Suzanne Mattei, DEC, Regional Director, region 2
Sonia Moghe, News 12 Brooklyn
FRI MAR 19, 2010
Still no response from BWSO.
Request for inspection by the Bureau of Water and Sewer Operations was put in to BWSO by Deanna Brown, DEP Hazmat, on Friday Feb 26, 2010. I’ve been unable to reach them as 311 does not give a direct number.
Mon Mar 22, 2010
Still no response from BWSO. Sending Fumes Timeline to all who I met at the meeting.
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Sasha Sumner 